sharing small pieces of rocks or jewels I find on the way

I lost $15mm in one summer. It was about a million a week and then it picked up speed.

I bought a house. I invested in bad companies. I started worse companies. I bought art. I took A LOT of helicopters.

I thought about money all the time. I wanted to make $100 million. Then…I thought…I can finally feel like I achieved something.

That's how stupid I was. I then lost my house, lost my marriage, lost my friends, lost my family, lost a lot of opportunities.

Enough about that. It's like reading the same newspaper twice. Boring. I write about that all the time.

Ten things more valuable than money.

A) One 5 minute call with my daughter instead of a 5 minute call about business with someone I don't like

PLEASE GOD, give me the strength to not take the five minute call with the person I don't like.

I can lose all the money in the world but I can make it back. I will NEVER get back the 5 minutes I could've spent with my daughters. She's trying to navigate through this world that's so difficult to plunge through. I make her laugh. 5 minutes of making her laugh she will remember forever. She will say at my deathbed, "He always made me laugh", but only if I devote those 5 minutes to her. That's more valuable than money.

B) Writing down ideas

I like to write down ten ideas a day. That's 3,650 ideas a year. I do it on a waiter's pad. I have over 100 waiter's pads in my closet.

Ideas are more valuable than money. Income has gone down versus inflation for 40 years.

And people say ideas are a "dime a dozen". I can tell you this is not true. Pick any concept. Like say, "10 ideas of novels I can write". Maybe the first 3 might be easy ("a dime for three ideas"). But ten starts to get difficult.

Then people say "execution is everything". This is so wrong. First, you can't execute without a decent idea to begin with. Second, execution ideas are a subset of ideas. Let's say I have a good idea for a novel. Now my next execution step is to have ideas for all the chapters. An outline. Then my next execution step is to have ideas for when I will write. And so on.

Money lasts for a few seconds in my hands. But ideas can grow and build and spread and touch everyone I know and then everyone they know.

C) Ideas for other people

I had $0 in the bank in 2008 when I was getting my divorce. Then I started to make money.

How did I start making money? I started sending "10 Ideas to Make X Better". Where X might be a person or a business. Then I would send to X.

One out of 50 would respond. But that's ok. That's all it takes to make millions.

D) Persistence is more valuable than money

In the above case I had to (and still do) send out 100s of emails. I had to do hours of research to come up with ideas. I had to go to meetings without any clue what the outcome would be.

E) Physical health

I can get in the car, drive two miles to the gym, and then walk on the treadmill for two miles while watching about Ebola on CNN in front of me.

Or I can sleep well, eat well, and take a few healthy walks during the week.

Sometimes Claudia, my wife, makes me do yoga with her. Ok, I can do that also. Sometimes I think I'm very good at it when I finally touch my toes.

I don't care how long I live. If I die tomorrow I feel like I've lived a life worth living. But I do want quality of life until I die. My father spent the last two years of his life staring at a ceiling because he was paralyzed from a stroke.

I keep healthy because if you spend two years of your life staring at a ceiling, money is worth zero.

F) Laughing

Guess what? Kids laugh on average 300 times a day. Adults laugh on average….5 times a day.

What the hell happened?

I can't pay people to laugh. Money doesn't make me laugh. Except when I'm bathing in it and pretending to be Dr. Evil.

Laughter is linked to all sorts of things that make you healthier. Like it releases oxytocin throughout the body which gives feelings of happiness and calmness.

I have to give a TEDx talk later. I need to laugh before then.

Here's my go-to laugh items of the day:

the book "Food" by Jim Gaffigan

Andy Samberg's Harvard commencement speech

any standup by Louis CK

the book "Ant Farm" by Simon Rich

the TV show "Family Guy"

I'm sure I will find others. I will get up to those 300 laughs today and it will have nothing to do with money but it will have everything to do with my future happiness and success.

G) Giving

This sounds like a cliché. People always say "give and you shall receive", which I believe in but since people always say it, it's a cliché.

When I was dead broke (again, or prior) in 2001 I would volunteer in a charity.

So instead of feeling bad for myself or getting anxious about killing myself because I had no money, I felt good about the charity work and I also got a crush on the woman doing the work with me. Nothing happened in the crush but sometimes the hint that love is all around is enough to stop the anxiety and cure the worries about money.

Giving is a soft boomerang. You throw it as hard as you can. It touches everyone around. And then it flies back into your hand. And you know what? When you catch it, that feels like fun. Fun is a game. Fun is better than money.

H) Your DNA

The universe has been around for 13.2 billion years (according to a professor I spoke to yesterday. Maybe he's right or maybe it was created one second ago by aliens who are doing a scientific experiment and we can't even tell).

The universe will be around for another ten trillion at least. You will be around for another 40-60 years, give or take 100.

Your body will be dead. So will your mind. Hardware fails, but your software (your DNA) will live on. The best thing you can do for your DNA is to leave a legacy. We know that money doesn't work as a legacy. It disappears after a few generations. But other legacies can live for thousands of years. Your ancestors, your ideas, the light you have shared with others.

I) Experiences

One Christmas I bought my kids big beautiful presents. Now we all try to remember what they were but we forget.

Other Christmases I find a great location, rent a beautiful place, get a ping pong table shipped in, and my kids and I fly out there and have fun for ten days. Then Claudia makes a poster about the experience.

Now we all know what we did. My kids will never forget it. I converted my money into an experience rather than just another material good.

I'm preparing them for all the great things they will have to talk about on my death bed.

J) Me

I am more valuable than money. I'm such an amazing thing. With DNA, and neurochemicals, and I try to make people laugh. And I try to help people. And I'm amazingly humble. NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY, is more humble than me.

I run this code in console (pressing F12 and then selecting console and pressing enter after pasting) and then I can have keyboard control. Now if I press right arrow it goes 15 seconds ahead and pressing left goes back 15 seconds. If you don’t like 15, feel free to change the code to 10 and hit enter, it will be applicable instantly.

I haven’t been programming for very long time and have no idea how to make chrome extension. Should checkout, but don’t get enough time, too many things to read. So, wish to get it done by doing smallest possible🙂

I directly worked on this project. The backend code is built by my team in Bing in collaboration with Microsoft Research. To be honest, it's a big surprise to me that this tiny web app went viral. I did some post analysis on why it went viral and wrote a blog post on Medium.

Back to the main topic, I want to answer this question in two parts. First part I will talk about how to quickly implement the exact same capabilities in any app. In the second part, I will go a bit deeper to describe the technology itself.

In Bing Image Search we have built the best in industry image understanding capabilities in the past few years. It was used in Bing and quickly expanding to other Microsoft products. Now it is open to all developers: Microsoft Project Oxford Home. In order to implement the same capability in an app, you can simply call the web API and get all the necessary information back in JSON format. You can give it a try by uploading an image here: Page on www.projectoxford.ai. It gives the data back in seconds. The face coordinates, gender, age information are all included. Face API is just one of the many features that we have made open in Project Oxford. There are many other core capabilities in the API to empower innovative scenarios. I am very excited to see this Microsoft internal API open to all developers and I know this will have profound impact to the developer world because the previous impossible scenarios are now just one simple web API call. #HowOldRobot was just one tiny demo to show off these capabilities. It was put together by one developer from Azure ML team just in one day.

How Old Do I Look? mainly relies on 3 key technologies (i.e. face detection, gender classification and age detection). Face detection is the foundation for the other two. For age detection and gender detection, they are just classic regression and classification problems in machine learning. It involves facial feature representation, collecting training data, building regression/classification models and model optimization. There are plenty of publications in this area. Let me know if you have enough interest to go deeper.

On the other hand, deep learning and large scale data understanding have led to a new breakthrough of image understanding. This opens a door to more intelligent systems and APIs. You can check out my latest blog to understand how the Image Graph works to power advanced scenarios. http://blogs.bing.com/search-qua…

You have understated (severely) what Bill Gates is doing. It would be one thing if he was sitting in his ubermansion outside of Seattle and just writing checks for every attractive greenpeace undergrad that smiled at him. Bill Gates is flying to countries on the do not fly to list and meeting with dictators that are on the shoot on sight list and using his fat ass bank account as leverage to get their cooperation in distributing food and medicine to their people.

Bill Gates probably sat down with his wife at the beginning of it all and she was like, "Hey Bill, we should like, save all these people." And he was like, "Cool, write a check." And she was like, "Yeah so its not that simple." And then he was like, "You want me to do what? You do know I'm the richest dude within missile range, right? We could just waste away in pampered luxury wherever we want?" And she was like, "Pleeeeeeeeeease." And he was like, "Shit, alright, it can't be harder than killing all those tech companies in the nineties." And then all he did was start a worldwide consortium to strong arm billionaires into donating half their money to a fund, and then use that fund as leverage to strong arm the shitty politicians of the world not into helping him, but into at least letting him help their people. Even when it's not in their best interests.

He gave an interview recently where someone asked him, why are you able to do all these things ambassadors and activists and Bono and other people weren't able to do. And he looked at the guy and was like, "I've got billions of #$%&*# dollars and I'm making people do shit," or something to that effect. Imagine evil Bill Gates of the RealPlayer/Netscape assassination era but focused on doing good. He's like Batman right now. I'm not even sure everything he's doing is legal. But sometimes you need someone who can walk into the Congo with a jacked up haircut and enough money and gumption to threaten a coup to make a change in the world.

I was in my late 30’s, three children, recently divorced, working two jobs, trying to stay afloat. My second job was that of a waitress and I worked a couple nights a week and Sundays. Not a lot of employees wanted the Sunday shift. We were on a major highway for beach traffic. Sunday traffic consisted of sunburned children who were cranky and tired, bad tipping (mostly because they spent too much on amusements, hotels and restaurants) and parents who were regretting having to return to work the next day. Sunday’s could be busy, but mostly, they were on the slow side.

One Sunday, a family of four came into the restaurant and sat down – Dad, Mom, two children – one girl approximately 7 and one boy around 5. It was a slow day and a storm was approaching. The little boy was quite talkative and I found out just about everything they did the week before. They were the only table in the restaurant and ate dinner and relaxed while the storm passed.

I should let you know I love rainbows. I sometimes feel like I am a rainbow chaser. People like me know the look and feel when rainbows should appear in the area. As a matter of fact, my kids to this day, call me when they see a rainbow. That being said, after the storm I noticed that look. Went out back and saw the most beautiful rainbow. (sigh) Checked on the table and asked the parents if I could take their kids to see the rainbow. I could see the glance between them, probably wondering if I was a kidnapper, but that quickly passed as I described the sheer beauty of what was happening right outside the door. Told them we would be right out front and they could come too. They let the children go with me while they paid the bill.

The little boy grabbed my hand and we walked out and sat down on the curb. By now there were two rainbows and working on a third. I explained a little science and the children were just amazed. They had never seen real rainbows only ones in pictures. The parents came out and we all sat there and watched for a few minutes at the wonder of the rainbow. Another car drove into the parking lot and I knew this had to end because I was about to get another customer. We said our goodbyes.

A year later, working one Sunday, I had a family come into the restaurant and sat down – Dad, Mom, two children – one girl and one boy 5. When I approached the table, the little boy jumps up and says to me, “Can you make it happen again?” I of course had no idea what he was referring to. The mom and dad explained they had been in the year before and their little boy told everyone how he met someone who could make rainbows. His sister kept telling her brother that it didn’t work that way and there would not be any rainbow and he should just shut up. The young man was very convinced that I could indeed make it happen. I didn’t know what to do, but I tried to explain as nicely as I could, that I didn’t think we would be able to see a rainbow that day. It was a beautiful sunny day. As I left the table, I could hear the little boy saying to his sister, “You just wait and see.”

Well, if you haven’t figured it out yet, there was a storm that blew in really fast. The sky darkened and it poured for about 5 minutes and then all cleared up and what remained was a beautiful rainbow. Now you may call this a coincidence, miracle, sign from above or just damn amazing. All I know is there was one little boy who proved his sister wrong, amazed his parents and sat with me for a very long time on the curb calling me the rainbow maker. Just to let you know, I got a damn good tip.

One of the best piece I have ever seen in Quora – how to be a designer

Answer by Karen X. Cheng:

I got my job as a designer without going to design school.

I wanted to change careers and become a designer, but I didn’t have four years and $100k to go back to school. So I decided to teach myself. At first, I had a lot of doubts on whether someone could teach themselves well enough to get a job.If you’re wondering the same, the answer is yes.

I hacked together my own design education in 6 months while working a full-time job. I didn’t think I was ready but started applying for jobs anyway — and got a job at a great startup, Exec.

I’ll admit, I’m nowhere near as good as many design prodigies that come out of a 4-year education at an elite school. But I’m definitely good enough to do my job well. I design a pretty wide range of things — for the website, iPhone app, emails, social media, and print.

Maybe you want to change careers and become a designer full-time.Or you just want to learn some basics for your startup or side project.

This is a guide to teach yourself design.

Step 1. Learn to seeThe biggest mistake is jumping into Photoshop too fast. Learning Photoshop does not make you a designer, just like buying paintbrushes doesn’t make you an artist. Start with the foundation.

First, learn how to draw.

You don’t have to sit in a room with a bunch of other artists trying to draw a naked woman.

You don’t even have to get that good at drawing. Just learn some basics so you can be comfortable sketching with a pen.

You only have to do one thing to learn how to draw: get the book You Can Draw in 30 days and practice for half an hour every day for a month. I’ve looked at a lot of drawing books and this is one of the best.

Learn graphic design theory

Start with the book Picture This. It’s a story book of Little Red Riding hood, but will teach you the foundations of graphic design at the same time.

Learn about color, typography, and designing with a grid. If you can find a local class to teach the basics of graphic design, take it.

Don’t fill your mockups with placeholder text like Lorem Ipsum. Your job as a designer is not just to make pretty pictures — you must be a good communicator. Think through the entire experience, choosing every word carefully. Write for humans. Don’t write in the academic tone you used to make yourself sound smart in school papers.

Read Made to Stick, one of my favorite books of all time. It will teach you how to suck in your readers.

Voice and Tone is a website full of great examples of how to talk to users.

Learn to kill your work

This is the hardest step in this whole guide.

Be prepared to kill everything you make. Be prepared to violently slaughter your precious design babies. The sooner you can embrace this, the better your work will become. When you realize your work isn’t good enough, kill it. Start again.

Get another pair of eyes. Ask for feedback on your work from people who care about design. Don’t know anyone? Make some designer friends — go to designer meetups and events.

Get the opinion of people who don’t care about design, too. Show your work to people who would be your users and ask them to try your website or app. Don’t be afraid to ask strangers — I once took advantage of a delayed flight by asking all the people in the airport terminal to try out an app I was designing. Most of them were bored and happy to help, and I got some great usability feedback.

Listen. Really listen. Don’t argue. If you ask someone for feedback, they’re doing you a favor by giving you their time and attention. Don’t repay the favor by arguing with them. Instead of arguing, thank them and ask questions. Decide later whether you want to incorporate their feedback.

Step 2. Learn how to use Photoshop and IllustratorHooray! Now you’ve got a pretty solid foundation – both visual and UX. You’re ready to learn Photoshop. Actually, I recommend starting with Illustrator first and then moving on to Photoshop after. Illustrator is what designers use to make logos and icons. InDesign is good for print design like flyers and business cards.

Learn Illustrator

There are a ton of books, online tutorials and in-person classes to learn Illustrator. Choose the style that works best for you. Here are the books I found especially helpful to learn the basics of Illustrator:

Make a list of the websites you think are beautifully designed. Note what they have in common. Some great examples are on SiteInspire.

Now for the hairy question of whether you need to know HTML/CSS as a designer: It depends on the job. Knowing it will definitely give you an edge in the job market. Even if you don’t want to be a web developer, it helps to know some basics. That way you know what is possible and what isn’t.There are so many great resources to learn HTML and CSS:

My favorite paid one (pretty affordable at $25/month) is Treehouse. If you’re starting from the beginning and want someone to explain things clearly and comprehensively, splurge for Treehouse tutorials.

Step 4. Build your portfolioYou don’t need to go to a fancy design school to get a job as a designer. But you do need a solid portfolio.

How do you build a portfolio if you’re just starting out for the first time? The good news is you don’t need to work on real projects with real clients to build a portfolio. Make up your own side projects. Here are a few ideas:

Resist the temptation to include every single thing you’ve ever designed in your portfolio. This is a place for your strongest work only.

Steal, steal, steal at first. Don’t worry about being original – that will come later, once you are more comfortable with your craft. When you learn a musical instrument, you learn how to play other people’s songs before composing your own. Same goes for design. Steal like an artist.

Go to Dribbble for inspiration on some of the best designers. Check out pttrns for iOS inspiration, and siteinspire for website inspiration.

Step 5: Get a job as a designerWhen I first started learning design, I went to a job search workshop for designers. I walked into a room full of designers who had much more experience than I did – 5, 10, 15 years experience. All of them were looking for jobs. That was intimidating. There I was, trying to teach myself design, knowing I was competing with these experienced designers.

And yet less than a year later, I got a design job. There was one key difference between me and many of the other designers that gave me an edge: I knew how to work with developers.

The biggest factor to boost your employability is to be able to work with developers. Learn some interaction design. Learn some basic HTML and CSS. Designers in the tech industry (interaction designers, web designers, app designers) are in extremely high demand and are paid well. That’s where the jobs are right now.

Make a personal website and make your portfolio the centerpiece.Go out and make serendipity happen – tell everyone you know that you’re looking for a job as a designer. You never know who might know someone.

Research companies and agencies you might be interested in. Look on LinkedIn for 2nd and 3rd degree connections to people who work at those companies and ask for intros. The best way to get a job is through a connection. If you don’t have a connection, there’s still a lot you can do to give yourself an edge.

Once you’ve got the job, keep learningI’ve been at Exec for a year now and have learned a ton on the job. I seek out designers who are much more talented than I am, and learn from them. I find design classes (good online ones are Skillshare, General Assembly, Treehouse, and TutsPlus). I work on side projects. I geek out at the design section of bookstores. There is still so much to learn and to improve on.Keep your skills sharp, and always keep learning.

Questions? Say hi at @karenxcheng. If you decide to start learning design and want to seriously commit to practicing everyday, drop me a line at karen (at) danceinayear (dot) com. I’m running an experiment to help keep you motivated.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” ― Ira Glass

I'll give the questioner the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is being asked in good faith. No, it is not remotely OK. Out of my entire portfolio of 90+ companies, including quite a few that are well past Series A and profitable, there is a not a single CEO who is drawing even close to that.

Unless there is something extremely unusual about this situation (such as that the CEO is also the founder, who has invested a few million of his or her own cash, and has some special need for a big salary, such as a terminally ill spouse) that level of cash compensation would be entirely out of line. In my personal experience with companies that are pre-significant-revenue, the median CEO salary range seems to be about $75K-$125K. In some cases with later stage (post Series A) companies with significant revenue and a more mature founder (say, +/-50 y/o) with high living expenses (kids, schools, mortgage, etc.) it might sneak up close to $200K, but that would be an exception.

In the startup world, a CEO's compensation is usually taken in the form of equity, not cash.